Hero Indian Open 2025: Is the Gary Player Course the toughest test in Indian golf?

The crowds love drama. When it comes to golf—a sport unrivalled in its ability to make good players look like rank novices—weekend amateurs derive a great deal of pleasure watching professionals falter and make a spectacle of themselves. Golf might be cruel, but it’s egalitarian, and everyone, ability no bar, is subject to the vagaries of the game.

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Besides, what sort of respectable quest comes without its share of travails? Certainly not the Hero Indian Open, that, much like the US Open, has acquired the reputation of being raw and unforgiving. This newly minted status as one of the “toughest tests in golf" (at least this side of the Suez Canal), is entirely on account of the Open’s newest venue—the Gary Player course—at the DLF Golf & Country Club, which is hosting the event for the sixth consecutive year.

Over the six decades of its existence, the Indian Open has differentiated itself on the different—Asian and now European—tourneys it’s been a part of with unique venues that present singular challenges to the field. From its inception in 1964 till 1999, the Indian Open was held either at the 196-year-old Royal Calcutta Golf Club or the Delhi Golf Club. Both historic parkland layouts that rewarded local course knowledge and were considered favourable “pitches" for homegrown players.

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In the new millennium, the DGC was joined by modern golf courses, namely the Karnataka Golf Association (Bengaluru), the Classic Golf Resort (Gurugram), and the DLF Golf & Country Club (Gurugram). Since 2017, it’s a newer iteration of the latter—the redesigned Gary Player layout—that has held sway. Besides its world-class layout, pristine course conditioning, and diverse arsenal of hazards, the Gary Player layout has an international character that, in a sense, makes the Hero Indian Open more egalitarian: everyone must pass through the fire.

There’s no undue advantage afforded to anyone in the field. You have to hit the shots, and you have to make the putts. All the while avoiding the flotilla of bunkers, rock walls, gnarly rough, and water bodies that line the constantly undulating fairways. “Some holes have been shortened while others are playing longer to force a change in course strategy," says Tusch Daroga, who heads golf operations at the course. Smaller insidious changes include strategic recalibration of the rough. On the 11th green, for example, the patch of rough that prevented the ball going out of bounds has been scaled back.

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The only perceivable edge that players with experience on this course might have is a lack of bravado, tempered by memories of things going awry. Even those who’ve done well here tend to be wary. “I remember literally every shot from two years ago," says Marcel Siem, the 2023 Hero Indian Champion. “I have to be careful that I don’t get greedy with my expectations…That’s why I’m saying top 20. And inside the top 20 is the win included," is as far as the German player is willing to peg his expectations from the week.

Even defending champion Keita Nakajima is circumspect about his chances despite coming off a second-place finish at the DP World Tour’s Porsche Singapore Classic earlier this month. “This is a tough course. I don’t know how I won last year…" says the Japanese player. He’s being conservative off the tee here: not only has Nakajima hit a spot of form leading up to the event, he’s also well rested after taking a month off to prep for the Tour’s “Asian Swing"—a series of four events across three countries—that began in Singapore.

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Fans remember all too well how Nakajima decimated the field last year to win by four strokes despite dropping three strokes on the last three holes on the final day. That final-day performance by Nakajima was one of the finest closing rounds at the event in recent years, and unquestionably the most impressive at the DLF G&CC. It was not just the speed and confidence with which he played but Nakajima, 24, had a nonchalance about him you rarely see in a youngster chasing his debut win on the DP World Tour. He made birdies even when he was errant off the tee, and put on an exhibition on the greens.

At one point, with nine holes to go, Nakajima was seven shots ahead of the field but the dreaded 16th to 18th stretch exacted three strokes from the youngster whittling his winning margin down to four strokes. He’ll remember those three consecutive bogeys, and that’s not a bad thing. “These last three holes present high-risk and high-reward options. If you’re in the mix on the final day and need a stroke to win and you’re willing to take the risk then these can be pretty rewarding. But unless you really need that stroke to win the day, these holes are not to be tested," says Daroga, and adds, “...We’re clear that a winner on our course is someone whose mettle is tested here, and who can bring his best game to the fore on all four days."

Either way, whether it’s to make appropriate noises as players self-destruct, or applaud the rare instance when someone vanquishes the odds, you’ll catch all the drama on the closing stretch this weekend. Park yourself anywhere along the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes—the best seats in the house folks—and you shall be entertained.

Meraj Shah is a Delhi-based writer, golfer and television producer.

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